With regard to game apparatuses simulating team sports using game media (balls and the like) such as ball sports, including soccer, rugby, American football and basketball, as well as hockey which is similar to these ball sports, each team has a plurality of player characters and the team play of these player characters is realized by a user's manipulation of these game apparatuses.
In these game apparatuses, player characters are given different characteristics in their physiques and running speeds, thereby the user can enjoy developing game strategies. One way of expressing characteristics of the player characters is to provide each player characters with different data for actions to create images of each character, but this will require an enormous amount of data. Thereupon, to express “running” actions of the player characters, for example, it is considered possible to apply common data for motions such as arm-swinging and feet hitting the ground, for all the player characters. In this case, processing is performed so that each character changes its location in a virtual space while swinging its arms and hitting the ground with its feet.
However, if the player characters have physiques different in size, a shift amount of one step in the running motion must be proportional to a character's physique, otherwise, the shift amount of a player character having a large body will be too small considering the character's action of the legs, and the shift amount of a player character having a small body will be too large considering the character's action of the legs, thereby showing unnatural movements as if the feet are sliding on the ground.
Here, when the shift amount of one step in the running motion is made proportional to the physique of the player character, and if the common data for “running” is applied to all the player characters as described, the player character having a large body runs at a fast speed and the player having a small body runs at a slow speed. Up to now, however, it has been impossible to provide different player characters with different characteristics for the “running speeds” irrespective of the physiques of the characters, and it is also impossible to realize such characteristics in images.
Further, among game apparatuses simulating team sports such as ball sports, including soccer, rugby, American football and basketball, as well as hockey which is similar to these ball sports, such game apparatuses are known for one user manipulating player characters on one team.
For example, a game apparatus is known whereby, when the user's team is controlling a game medium such as a ball, the user at all times manipulates a player character controlling the game medium. In this case, when the player character controlling the game medium passes it to another player character in accordance with the user's manipulation, the object player character of manipulation by the user changes from the passer to the receiver Thereby, even if the game medium is passed between the player characters, the user can continue to manipulate a player character who is controlling the game medium.
Nevertheless, the fact that the user can manipulate only the player character who is controlling the game medium, means that the user cannot enjoy developing game strategies such as requesting for receiving a pass or making other player characters take positions, resulting in a monotonous game.
There are other game apparatuses, for example, in which the player character which the user manipulates during a game is fixed so that the user's role in the team is specific. In this case, when the user manipulates a player character to pass the game medium to another player character, the user grasps the situation and makes his/her player character take another position or the user can request to receive the game medium while considering the next play.
Even with this configuration, the fact that the user manipulates only one player character during the game, may cause situations in which the user is barely involved in the game and becomes bored when his/her player character does not control the game medium or when the player character is positioned away from the game medium.
With regard to the game apparatuses simulating team sports such as ball sports, for example, soccer, rugby, American football and basketball, as well as hockey which is similar to these ball sports, plays such as a free kick in soccer are performed.
Here, a selection of a player character who is going to perform such a play has to be made prior to the action. In the case of conventional game apparatuses, an opponent user watches the same screen as the user. Accordingly, the opponent user can see the user's motion to make a selection, thereby, the opponent user knows which player character is going to perform the play. Therefore, with the conventional game apparatuses, the user cannot develop a game strategy, in cases of performing a free kick as described, to delay time for defense of the opponent team by delaying the time for the free-kick with feint actions by other same team players.
Furthermore, in the case of the game apparatuses simulating team sports such as ball sports, including soccer, rugby, American football and basketball, as well as hockey which is similar to these ball sports, it is necessary to use various types of pass actions appropriately, depending on game strategies and game situations. Accordingly, in the conventional game apparatuses, various pass actions are allotted to plural operational buttons: search pass buttons for automatic searching for a player character to whom the game medium is passed; and space pass buttons for sending the ball to a specific space. Use of these buttons achieves a variety of plays, such as passing the game medium to a specified player character or sending the game medium to a specific space (an area with no players from either team) and manipulating a same team player character to run into the space.
These conventional game apparatuses, however, require a great number of operational buttons just to pass the game medium. For example, to classify both search passing and space passing into a short pass type and a long pass type and to allot these passing types to buttons, four buttons are required. This will requires a fair amount of effort to learn the allocation and functions of buttons. As well, the user needs to be considerably skilled to be able to accurately perform different types of pass actions based on quick decisions.
It is an object of this invention to enhance enjoyment of a game apparatus simulating a team game such as soccer, as well as to provide an image processing apparatus therefor. More precise objects of the invention are as follows.
It is a first object of this invention to provide an image processing apparatus with which characters shifting in a virtual space with predetermined motions, can be realized in different sizes and with different shifting speeds irrespective of size while applying motion data which is common to all the characters.
It is a second object of this invention to provide a game apparatus in which the manipulation options are increased and so, the user can enjoy developing game strategies when a player character who is controlling the game medium makes a pass.
It is a third object of this invention to provide a game apparatus which is capable of delaying the timing of a play of a selected player character by making unselected same team player characters perform feint actions.
It is a fourth object of this invention to provide a game apparatus with which: the user can make a search pass and a through pass with one button; a short search pass and a short through pass can be made by similar manipulation; and a long search pass and a long through pass can be made by similar manipulation, thereby simultaneously enhancing the operability and the diversity of plays.